Unable to install nvm on WSL due to network issues - windows-subsystem-for-linux

Question

I'm trying to install nvm using curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.1/install.sh | bash on WSL2, but I'm getting different errors. Initially, the curl command would return the following:
> $ curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.1/install.sh | bash
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- 0:00:09 --:--:-- 0curl: (6) Could not resolve host: raw.githubusercontent.com
After running netsh int ip reset in Windows, which was suggested in another question, the same command started timing instead:
> $ curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.1/install.sh | bash
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- 0:04:59 --:--:-- 0
curl: (28) Connection timed out after 300000 milliseconds
I've also tried manually saving the install.sh to my machine and running it locally (after setting its permissions with chmod +x install.sh), but that returns a similar error:
> $ ./install.sh
=> Downloading nvm from git to '/home/mparra/.nvm'
=> Cloning into '/home/mparra/.nvm'...
fatal: unable to access 'https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm.git/': Failed to connect to github.com port 443: Connection timed out
Failed to clone nvm repo. Please report this!
I can successfully ping github.com. ping -c 100 github.com returns the following:
--- github.com ping statistics ---
100 packets transmitted, 100 received, 0% packet loss, time 99156ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 15.280/20.739/85.205/9.141 ms
This issue suggests that a Windows update resolved the issue, but that's not an option for me since it's a work machine and I can't update beyond build 18363.2039. I've also checked that my VPN is not enabled and I set my DNS to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, which had no effect.

Answer 1

Please try the following in your WSL
sudo rm /etc/resolv.conf
sudo bash -c 'echo "nameserver 8.8.8.8" > /etc/resolv.conf'
sudo bash -c 'echo "[network]" > /etc/wsl.conf'
sudo bash -c 'echo "generateResolvConf = false" >> /etc/wsl.conf'
sudo chattr +i /etc/resolv.conf
I can install with curl.

Answer 2

I have a feeling you are probably correct about this being the same issue mentioned on Github that was resolved in a Windows update.
If that's truly the case, you are probably going to continue to run into issues even after getting nvm installed. For instance, nvm probably will have trouble downloading Node releases.
The easiest solution that I can propose, if it works for you, is to simply convert to WSL1 instead of WSL2. WSL1 will handle most (but not all) Node use-cases just as well as WSL2. And WSL1 handles networking very differently than WSL2. If the Windows networking stack is working fine for you, then WSL1's should as well.
As noted in that Github issue, this seemed to be a problem that occurred only in Hyper-V instances. WSL2 runs in Hyper-V, but WSL1 does not.
If you go this route, you can either:
create a copy of your existing WSL2 distribution and convert that copy to WSL1. From PowerShell:
wsl --shutdown
wsl -l -v # Confirm <distroname>
wsl --export <distroname> path\to\backup.tar
mkdir .\path\for\new\instance
wsl --import WSL1 .\path\for\new\instance path\to\backup.tar --version 1 # WSL1 can be whatever name you choose
wsl -d WSL1
Note that you'll be root, by default. To change the default user, follow this answer.
Or, just convert the WSL2 instance to WSL1:
wsl --shutdown
wsl -l -v # Confirm <distroname>
wsl --export <distroname> path\to\backup.tar # Just in case
wsl --set-version <distroname> 1
If WSL1 doesn't work for you (at least in the short term until your company pushes that update), then there may be another option similar to the one mentioned in this comment on that Github issue. Let me know if you need to go that route, and I'll see if I can simply that a bit.